freedom - Blog - The Philosophy Of Freedom2019-03-21T20:46:08Zhttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/feed/tag/freedomThe Only Agreeable Moral Value In Politics Is Freedomhttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/the-only-agreeable-moral-value-in-politics-is-freedom2016-04-06T17:31:04.000Z2016-04-06T17:31:04.000ZTom Lasthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/00yzc179qgdki<div><p><span class="font-size-4">Rudolf Steiner said the moral value that should be&#160;the foundation of political life is freedom.</span></p>
<p><strong>Moral Values And The Candidates Who Match Them</strong><br />
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/u9CLvdy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/u9CLvdy.jpg?width=700" width="700" class="align-full" /></a><br />
<em>You.gov&#160;poll identifys the moral values&#160;of supporters of each of this year’s presidential candidates.</em></p>
<p><strong>Populist Cross-Party Alliance</strong><br />
If Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency I would expect her and the DNC to further rig the primary process to make sure they never again face another Bernie Sanders type anti-establishment challenge. The RNC will likely also&#160;try and block anti-establishment candidates. This could make it more important that a populist alliance become a cross-party movement in the event we are forced to go 3rd party. Whatever happens, it is obvious we want to unite as many people as possible.</p>
<p>What could possibly be the basis of an alliance between such extreme opposites as Bernie Sanders Progressives and Donald Trump Tea Party supporters? A You.gov poll identified the moral values of both groups. The sides agree only on their support for one value: Liberty.</p>
<p>This poll was discussed in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/opinion/campaign-stops/the-trump-sanders-fantasy.html" target="_blank">New York Times article</a> and at the <a href="http://maddogdemocrat.blogspot.com/2016/02/thomas-edsall-putting-science-in.html" target="_blank">Mad Dog Democrat blog</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Moral Values Of Voters</strong><br />
The survey results provide a measure of the strength of current support for each of four values:</p>
<p><strong>Care (empathy)</strong><br />
<strong>Sanders Yes</strong><br />
<strong>Trump No</strong><br />
Supporters’ belief that “morality requires caring for and protecting the vulnerable.”</p>
<p><strong>Proportionality (accountability, or just deserts)</strong><br />
<strong>Sanders No</strong><br />
<strong>Trump Yes</strong><br />
Measured in part by favorable responses to this statement: “People who produce more should be rewarded more than those who just tried hard.” A desire for people to “reap what they sow.”</p>
<p><strong>Authority (plus loyalty and sanctity)</strong><br />
<strong>Sanders No</strong><br />
<strong>Trump Yes</strong><br />
Includes high levels of patriotism; loyalty to one’s group; support for the police and dislike of chaotic or disordered situations; hostility toward sexual acts outside traditional heterosexual relations; reverence for the American flag.</p>
<p><strong>Liberty</strong><br />
<span style="color: #800000;"><strong>Sanders Yes</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #800000;"><strong>Trump Yes</strong></span><br />
Resistance to being controlled or dominated, measured in part by approval of this statement: “Everyone should be free to do as they choose, so long as they don’t infringe on the freedom of others.”</p>
<p><strong>Socialism vs Nationalism</strong><br />
Even though both the Bernie Sander's and Donald Trump movements agree on similar issues, the candidates are framing them differently. While Sanders is framing his populist message in Socialism - the caring for others, Trump is framing his message in Nationalism - protecting what is yours. By choosing to frame the same issues in Socialism and Nationalism the candidates remove any chance of joining forces. Both may be destined to hitting ceilings of support and short lived political movements.</p>
<p><strong>Common Populist Issues</strong><br />
Sanders and Trump&#160;have tapped into the frustration of those stuck on the middle and bottom rungs of the economic ladder.</p>
<ul>
<li>Both reject mechanisms to limit spending on Social Security and Medicare.</li>
<li>Both reject the free trade agreements of the past two decades.</li>
<li>Both reject mechanisms to limit spending on Social Security and Medicare — and each supports his own version of “health care for all”.</li>
<li>Both reject the use of super PACs to raise large political contributions and are convinced that politicians in Washington have sold out to powerful interests that contribute huge sums to campaigns.</li>
<li>Both reject military interventionism that consumes lives and resources.</li>
</ul>
<p><br />
<strong>Framing Issues For Broad&#160;Support</strong><br />
If a candidate framed populist issues&#160;in personal&#160;freedom&#160;they would gain broader support than Sanders socialism or Trump nationalism. George Lakoff makes the following points about frames and framing:</p>
<blockquote>“Communication itself comes with a frame. The elements of the Communication Frame include: A message, an audience, a messenger, a medium, images, a context, and especially, higher-level moral and conceptual frames. The choice of language is, of course, vital, but it is vital because language evokes frames — moral and conceptual frames.
<p>Frames form a system. The system has to be built up over time. It takes a long-range effort. <strong>Most of this system development involves moral and conceptual frames, not just communicative frames.</strong> Communicative framing involves only the lowest level of framing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><br />
<strong>Liberty Is The Fundamental American Value</strong><br />
Liberty and freedom are similar words. People are, by nature, meant to live in 'freedom', and the government is to grant 'liberty' to its citizens. For the founders of the nation, liberty was the fundamental American value. Liberty remained the dominant patriotic theme for the following 150 years, even if freedom played an important role.&#160;Lincoln's Gettysburg Address began by invoking a nation ''conceived in liberty,'' but went on to resolve that it should have a ''new birth of freedom.''</p>
<p><strong>Free Development Of Human Beings</strong><br />
''Freedom'' came into its own in the New Deal period when American values expanded to include the economic and social justice that permitted people <em>free development as human beings</em>. President Roosevelt proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:</p>
<ul>
<li>Freedom of speech</li>
<li>Freedom of worship</li>
<li>Freedom from want</li>
<li>Freedom from fear</li>
</ul>
<p><br />
The civil rights movement made ''freedom now'' its rallying cry. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used ''freedom'' 19 times in his ''I Have a Dream'' speech. Feminists extended freedom to cover reproductive rights, while Timothy Leary spoke of the ''fifth freedom . . . the freedom to expand your own consciousness.</p>
<p><strong>Corporate Freedom</strong><br />
President Ronald Reagan understood the power of the word ''freedom''. His second Inaugural Address mentioned freedom 14 times. But for Reagan freedom meant an absence of constraints on markets, deregulation, tax cuts and a weakening of unions. What Reagan fought for was <em>corporate freedom</em>.</p>
<p>President Bill Clinton was also a fighter for corporate freedom, though this is hotly debated. He repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, creating a permissive lending environment that contributed to the financial collapse.</p>
<p>Establishment politicians can be framed as valuing corporate freedom while a populist candidate&#160;as valuing personal&#160;freedom and development.</p>
<p><strong>Tea Party Personal Freedom</strong><br />
Nearly every attempt to describe Tea Party demographics will mention&#160;anger and frustration with government infringement upon liberty and personal freedom. It is a bedrock principle for most Tea Party members. Of course corporate freedom has been framed to mean personal freedom. But&#160;the conservative love of personal freedom is an opening to reach them with a unity populist platform if it is framed&#160;as enabling more&#160;personal freedom.</p>
<p>The&#160;science has identified freedom&#160;to be the moral value that will appeal to all sides. Would it be&#160;possible to frame all populist issues within the fundamental&#160;American principle of freedom? &#160;It makes sense that this framing possibility should be further examined.</p>
</div>Chapter 9 And The Twelve Ideas To Act Typeshttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/chapter-9-and-the-twelve-ideas-to-act-types2015-10-08T23:49:58.000Z2015-10-08T23:49:58.000ZTom Lasthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/00yzc179qgdki<div><p><a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/hoernle-translation-1916#10c" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/A3IzgjbOqn2VqlEBGjaVwZUcGgNd4Ve9bpaloYz0co49-yqgW0xPBJRaps5SqZk4DOYhJECUhqhwLFB996Y1z1V0*e-ckC*y/thinkeracts.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/A3IzgjbOqn2VqlEBGjaVwZUcGgNd4Ve9bpaloYz0co49-yqgW0xPBJRaps5SqZk4DOYhJECUhqhwLFB996Y1z1V0*e-ckC*y/thinkeracts.jpg" width="650" class="align-full" /></a>Chapter 9&#160;<strong>THE IDEA OF FREEDOM</strong><br />
Why do people hold a certain view? What is it that convinces someone of something? It depends on their thinking personality. Each Philosophy Of Freedom chapter describes 12 thinking personality types.</p>
<p>Chapter 9 of The Philosophy Of freedom describes the idea to act. The aspect of the idea to act that most interests someone depends on their thinking personality type. Here are some notes on the 12 views of the idea to act. A free person will be aware of all the <a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/world-outlooks" target="_blank">12 world-outlooks</a>&#160;and apply them according to need.</p>
<p><strong>9.0 Chapter 9 mood is Logicism (connecting parts into a whole)</strong> Introduction: What is brought into ideal relation to the external world by means of the concept, is an immediate experience of my own, a percept of my self. More precisely, it is a percept of my self as active, as producing effects on the external world. In apprehending my own acts of will, I connect a concept with a corresponding percept, viz., with the particular volition. In other words, by an act of thought I link up my individual faculty (my will) with the universal world-process.<br />
<strong>9.1 Materialist idea to act (physical world)</strong> External Idea: Idea from our conceptual system which corresponds to the external world and is conditioned by this external world.<br />
<strong>9.2 Spiritist idea to act (what underlies world, gained by inner activity)</strong> Motive Of Will: Universal and individual concepts (ideas) become motives of will by influencing the individual make up (characterological disposition) and determining him to action in a particular direction.<br />
<strong>9.3 Realist idea to act (external world)</strong> Characterological disposition: Habitual ideas and feelings, determined by experience and environment.<br />
<strong>9.4 Idealist idea to act (looks for progressive tendency)</strong> Levels of morality.<br />
<strong>9.5 Mathematist idea to act (calculating, order)</strong> Practical reason: The action is neither a stereotyped one, nor is it automatically performed in response to an external impulse. Rather it is determined solely through its ideal content.<br />
<strong>9.6 Rationalist idea to act</strong> Moral Motive: The action is individually adapted to the special case and the special situation, and yet at the same time is ideally determined by pure intuition.<br />
<strong>9.7 Psychist idea to act (psychology, ideas are bound up with a being)</strong> Ethical Individualism: To express in life the aggregate of the ideas in us that refers to action, our moral substance, is ethical individualism.<br />
<strong>9.8 Pneumatist idea to act (spirit)</strong> Love For The Objective: I do not ask whether my action is good or bad; I perform it because I am in love with it.<br />
<strong>9.9 Monadist idea to act (build up existence in itself)</strong> Expression Of Ideals In Individual Way: The individual element in me is not my organism with its instincts and feelings, but rather the unified world of ideas which reveals itself through this organism. An act the grounds for which lie in the ideal part of my individual nature is free.<br />
<strong>9.10 Dynamist idea to act (force is present)</strong> Harmony Of Intentions: If we both draw our intuitions really from the world of ideas, and do not obey mere external impulses (physical or moral), then we can not but meet one another in striving for the same aims, in having the same intentions.<br />
<strong>9.11 Phenomenalist idea to act (appearance of phenomena and interpretation)</strong> Concept of the Free Human Being: Our life is made up of free and unfree actions. We cannot, however, form a final and adequate concept of human nature without coming upon the free spirit as its purest expression.<br />
<strong>9.12 Sensationalist idea to act (accept sense impression without mixed in thought)</strong> Moral World Order: The Philistine who looks upon the state as embodied morality is sure to look upon the free spirit as a danger to the state. The free man acts because he has a moral idea, he does not act in order to be moral. Human individuals are the presupposition of a moral world order.</p>
</div>Fighting Climate Change With Freedom Or Force?https://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/fighting-climate-change-with-freedom-or-force2015-08-17T01:48:48.000Z2015-08-17T01:48:48.000ZEthical Individualisthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/theethicalindividualist<div><table border="0" style="width: px;">
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<td>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/LGdhCycw6D9c0DBtE2kbP4-mkizoqYD8Xrz-k5uVxtTth2r9tu9rWYYePxcX7oaVLz7xSo7saTRg8p7U87Zbp3az2S4ReZ7A/footprints1.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/LGdhCycw6D9c0DBtE2kbP4-mkizoqYD8Xrz-k5uVxtTth2r9tu9rWYYePxcX7oaVLz7xSo7saTRg8p7U87Zbp3az2S4ReZ7A/footprints1.jpg" width="555" class="align-full" /></a><strong>Global Footprint</strong><br />
Since the dawn of civilization, the planet replenished its resources faster than humans consumed them. Starting around 1970 that changed, we began to take more from the planet each year than it could restore. Since then, the gap between our rate of consumption and the planet's rate of regeneration has widened.</p>
<p>Its only mid-August but we have already used an entire year’s worth of the Earth’s natural resources according to the Global Footprint Network. For the rest of the year we will consume more than the Earth can replenish. This natural resource debt is not sustainable, how can we change?</p>
<p><strong>Individual versus collective action</strong><br />
There is a continuing debate within the environmental movement about the relative merits of individual versus collective action. We are autonomous individuals as well as members of a local and global collective. I thought I would compare various possibilities of collective and individual action.</p>
<p>To act we need an “idea” of what to do and a “desire” to do it.</p>
<p><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>1. Collective idea and collective desire</strong></span><br />
<strong>Example:</strong> A democratic collective (State) agrees on an idea (environmental law) and the collective (citizens) desire to obey to avoid penalties (fines, jail).<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> The planet is saved but individual freedom is lost due to threat of force.</p>
<p><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>2. Collective idea and individual desire</strong></span><br />
<strong>Example:</strong> A collective (NGO) agrees on an idea (recycling) and individuals who desire to act do so on a voluntary basis.<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> Individual freedom is saved but the planet is lost due to lack of participation.</p>
<p><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>3. Individual idea and collective desire</strong></span><br />
<strong>Example:</strong> Individual eco-friendly inventions and marketing (solar powered toothbrush) and the collective desires it because of mass marketing.<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> The planet is saved but individual freedom is lost due to mind control.</p>
<p><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>4. Individual idea and individual desire</strong></span><br />
<strong>Example:</strong> Individual accepts eco-friendly ideas that she desires to act upon. Taking the global and her individual situation into consideration the necessary changes are made.<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> Individual freedom empowers diverse individual action and the planet is saved.</p>
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/LGdhCycw6D9-ZNppvc8zDQPaKXRDtp78FSPagJfacf7UAmZAxnLUTnbTeAqGK6mXw4wBe5US5nx7MtcnD443is8loaziOxsk/empowerment750.jpg" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/LGdhCycw6D9-ZNppvc8zDQPaKXRDtp78FSPagJfacf7UAmZAxnLUTnbTeAqGK6mXw4wBe5US5nx7MtcnD443is8loaziOxsk/empowerment750.jpg?width=750" class="align-full" /></a><strong>Mature free individuals</strong><br />
To meet the challenges of our time will take fully functioning mature individuals we are capable of unbiased scientific understanding of life situations (free thinking) and have a desire to live a life that expresses their highest ideals (free action). Nothing can stop you if you think universally and act individually.</p>
<p><strong>Impossible dream?</strong><br />
Is their really any other solution than the need for human development? Is this an impossible dream? Not if we start with ourselves. The global footprint is the total of individual footprints.</p>
<p><strong>Ethical individualism</strong><br />
Rudolf Steiner's <a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/hoernle-translation-1916" target="_blank">Philosophy Of Freedom</a>&#160;presents a way of life called <a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/ethical-individualism" target="_blank">Ethical Individualism</a>. It is about being inspired by your ideals, setting real goals, and realizing them without doing harm.</p>
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</div>Principles Of Individual Lifehttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/principles-of-individual-life2015-07-17T00:21:39.000Z2015-07-17T00:21:39.000Zwatsup?https://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/watsup<div><p>This short video is based on the first paragraph in Rudolf Steiner's <a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/hoernle-translation-1916" target="_blank">Philosophy Of Freedom</a>. It describes the early drive toward freedom as it expresses itself in the forming of a unique individuality.</p>
<p></p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/43pbKv5v6AY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="color: #993300;"><strong>SCRIPT</strong></span><br />
In order to survive the animal is driven by natural instincts for food, water, and shelter. Social learning gives an evolutionary advantage to those who join and conform to the group.<br />
Yet, if society is to continue evolving it needs something more than social conformity, it needs the innovation and creativity of free individuals.<br />
The social order is only formed so it can react in favor of the individual, but society cannot produce even one free individual.<br />
Only the individual himself can complete the final stage of evolution and realize freedom.<br />
The pursuit of individuality is the modern struggle for survival.<br />
To be true to yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something less, requires great effort.<br />
<br />
There is a natural conflict between individualism and authority.<br />
When challenged by authority, typically individualism cannot be sustained without paying a harsh price.<br />
<br />
No matter what anyone else asserts, an individualist will think for himself.<br />
Nothing is accepted as valid until he fits it into his own context of knowledge.<br />
Knowing that human perfection cannot be found by following in the footsteps of another, the individualist finds his own way in the difficult ascent to freedom.<br />
Why adoringly serve leaders who will turn out to be just as weak as yourself?<br />
<br />
No ideals will be forced upon him.<br />
He will select his own ideals and strive for their realization, which is his highest pleasure.<br />
<br />
We no longer believe that there is a norm of human life to which we must all strive to conform.<br />
We are convinced that in each of us, if only we probe deep enough into the very heart of our being, there dwells something noble, something worthy of development.<br />
We regard the perfection of the whole as depending on the unique perfection of each single individual.<br />
We do not want to do what anyone else can do equally well.<br />
No, our contribution to the development of the world, however trifling, must be something which, by reason of the uniqueness of our nature, we alone can offer.<br />
<br />
Never have artists been less concerned about rules and norms in art than today. Each of them asserts his right to express what is unique in him.<br />
The structure of a language can affect how we conceptualize the world, our world-view, so there are writers who do not conform to the standard selection of words and arrangement that grammar demands.<br />
<br />
We do not want to be dependent in any respect, and where dependence must be, we tolerate it only on condition that it coincides with a vital interest of our individuality.<br />
Individuality is one of the fundamental characteristics of our age.<br />
There is no better expression of this phenomena than striving towards freedom with the greatest intensity.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4" style="color: #993300;"><strong>THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>0.&#160;</strong><strong>THE GOAL OF KNOWLEDGE</strong><strong>&#160;(</strong><strong>Preface)</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://philosophyoffreedom.com/hoernle-translation-1916#c1" target="_blank">0.0 Impulse Of Freedom</a><br />
[1] I BELIEVE I am indicating correctly one of the fundamental characteristics of our age when I say that, at the present day, all human interests tend to center in the culture of human individuality. An energetic effort is being made to shake off every kind of authority. Nothing is accepted as valid, unless it springs from the roots of individuality. Everything which hinders the individual in the full development of his powers is thrust aside. The saying “Each one of us must choose his hero in whose footsteps he toils up to Olympus” no longer holds for us. We allow no ideals to be forced upon us. We are convinced that in each of us, if only we probe deep enough into the very heart of our being, there dwells something noble, something worthy of development. We no longer believe that there is a norm of human life to which we must all strive to conform. We regard the perfection of the whole as depending on the unique perfection of each single individual. We do not want to do what anyone else can do equally well. No, our contribution to the development of the world, however trifling, must be something that, by reason of the uniqueness of our nature, we alone can offer. Never have artists been less concerned about rules and norms in art than today. Each of them asserts their right to express, in the creations of their art, what is unique in them. There are dramatists who write in dialect rather than conform to the standard diction which grammar demands.</p>
<p>[2] No better expression for these phenomena can be found than this, that they result from the individual’s striving towards freedom, developed to its highest pitch. We do not want to be dependent in any respect, and where dependence must be, we tolerate it only on condition that it coincides with a vital interest of our individuality.</p>
</div>Freedom Diagramhttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/freedom-diagram2013-08-04T15:00:00.000Z2013-08-04T15:00:00.000ZTom Lasthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/00yzc179qgdki<div><p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfBFIftxH1kTZ3ckclNhf9aHHA5GpbibGx8XB6obMdyykEPbp84NmEwMN8izVkV2Y8bdDPfymhlt10Dwv7XSJoW/1058983606.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zfBFIftxH1kTZ3ckclNhf9aHHA5GpbibGx8XB6obMdyykEPbp84NmEwMN8izVkV2Y8bdDPfymhlt10Dwv7XSJoW/1058983606.png?width=750" width="750" class="align-center" /></a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
</div>Types of thinking discussed in Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy Of Freedomhttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/types-of-thinking-discussed-in-rudolf-steiner-s-philosophy-of-fre2013-07-14T18:30:00.000Z2013-07-14T18:30:00.000ZTom Lasthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/00yzc179qgdki<div><div style="margin-left: 20px;">
<div style="margin-right: 20px;">
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Here are names for the kinds of thinking discussed in the first 7 chapters in Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy Of Freedom. With every shift in the level of consciousness, what we call thinking undergoes a change. In chapter 1 a rational debate occurs about whether we are free or not. In chapter 7 various theories of cognition are discussed, then Monism is show to remove all the limitations of cognition making wholistic thinking possible. &#160;</p>
<p>Chapter 1 Conscious Human Action<br />
RATIONAL THINKING Level of consciousness - will<br />
Rational debate is a discussion about what we should believe. Both sides give arguments for some belief and defend that belief from objections.</p>
<p>Chapter 2 Desire For Knowledge<br />
SPECULATIVE THINKING Level of consciousness - feel<br />
Speculative thinking expresses human curiosity about the world. It transcends experience, but the chapters one-sided views lack experience of the world or the inner connection.</p>
<p>Chapter 3 Thinking in Understanding The World<br />
REFLECTIVE THINKING -Level of consciousness - thought<br />
Reflective thinking is reflection on thinking itself, on the mind and its activities. It is based on contemplation and introspection.</p>
<p>Chapter 4 The World As Perception<br />
REACTIVE THINKING Level of consciousness - perception<br />
Thinking immediately reacts to our observation by adding a preconception, and we consider the object and the preconception as belonging together forming our world of first appearance.</p>
<p>Chapter 5 Knowing The World<br />
CRITICAL THINKING Level of consciousness - concept<br />
We refute our initial impression of the world with critical thinking to discover the concept that corresponds to our perception.</p>
<p>Chapter 6 Individuality<br />
INDEPENDENT THINKING Level of consciousness - mental picture<br />
Independent thinking individualizes the universal concept by forming mental pictures.</p>
<p>Chapter 7 Are There Limits To Cognition?<br />
WHOLISTIC THINKING Level of consciousness - cognition<br />
Wholistic thinking endeavors to remove the limits of cognition in order to integrate all the parts into a whole.</p>
<p>&#160;<a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zffimQnYvQMZKWjT0lDiATNjq017u7dFXQyDGXKmY2kgd-kGnjdZ-kGu*k7CBzvhiS0BH4g*QGEfhB1fC1KmPqc/1058983589.png" target="_self"><img src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/v8L-Z4Kt2zffimQnYvQMZKWjT0lDiATNjq017u7dFXQyDGXKmY2kgd-kGnjdZ-kGu*k7CBzvhiS0BH4g*QGEfhB1fC1KmPqc/1058983589.png" width="644" class="align-full" /></a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>Interest In Rudolf Steiner Dramatically Drops (revised)https://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/interest-in-rudolf-steiner-dramatically-drops2013-07-09T21:00:00.000Z2013-07-09T21:00:00.000ZTom Lasthttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/00yzc179qgdki<div><p>How is Rudolf Steiner trending on the web? The Google trend chart below shows him sinking from year to year faster than the Anthroposophical Society. I came to the conclusion in 1989 that unless Steiner's <em>Philosophy Of Freedom</em> was presented to the world in a contemporary way it would disappear, but I didn't go as far as predicting the disappearance of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner's work needs a rebirth from outside the Anthroposophical Society as this graph has disqualified them as the rightful heirs of Steiner.* If <em>The Philosophy Of Freedom</em> can be renewed all of his work has a chance, as freedom is the core understanding of his work.</p>
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<p>&#160;Movements like Waldorf education may continue but they will become merely another institutionalization of the original living impulse as long as freedom&#160;is not understood. A few Waldorf self-appointed authorities already have seized the name "Waldorf" and made themselves its owner to enforce Waldorf dogma.</p>
<p>I have an important message for you if you are waiting for someone else to stand up for freedom. Not enough people are involved at this time to make much difference. Most anthroposophists are better at driving people away with narrow-minded Steiner doctrine than broadening his work. And his work hasn't been presented in a way to make it relevant to daily life.<br />
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The good news is that a few dedicated people could make a difference. Dedicated means that the first time you get your feelings hurt you don't quit. It means that the first time you realize how ignorant you are to think you can explain Steiner's principles you have enough courage to keep trying. It means that when you realize nobody else seems to give a damn and you yourself are no guru who can enlighten anybody you keep going. I suppose you have to be the kind of fool who says give me and others freedom or give me nothing.</p>
<p>*The Anthroposophical Society in America has appointed a new position of Director of Development to move the society forward.</p>
</div>How an action is born?https://philosophyoffreedom.com/profiles/blog/how-an-action-is-born2013-03-08T21:04:18.000Z2013-03-08T21:04:18.000ZAndrei Pintahttps://philosophyoffreedom.com/members/AndreiPinta<div><p>(Chapter Nine - The Idea of Freedom)</p><p>I'm preoccupied by the 3 concepts used by Rudolf Steiner to explain action:</p><p>1.Mobile (or driving force - <span>permanent determining factor <span>of the individual)</span></span></p><p>2.Motive (or the temporary determinant of will)</p><p>3.C<span>haracterological </span>disposition</p><p></p><p>1. Those can be the driving force of an action: lusts or desires /feelings / representations/ concepts/ pure concepts.</p><p>One question about the driving force is why are they the permanent determining factor of the individual? Is it because one lives for a long period of time (sometimes maybe a lifetime) with the same desires/lusts, he has the same feelings in certain situations and he always reacts in the same way to them, and the measure of one's experience is limited so one can have just a limited amount of representations of "what to do" in different situations - so he does just those actions about which he has a representations?</p><p>2. Motives, says Rudolf Steiner, can be either representations or thoughts. A representation or a thought is a motive, only if it made a human being make an action, otherwise is just a candidate for a motive.</p><p>The example in the book is: the representation of going for a walk in the next half an hour. This is the candidate for being the motive of an action.</p><p>Now, the <strong>characterological disposition (c.d.) </strong>enters the scene. From what I read, I understood that the c.d. is a group of mental objects of different types: representations, concepts, mental pictures and feelings. (Representation being a individualized notion or a mental picture).</p><p>Ok.</p><p>So when the candidate for being a motive enters one's consciousness, objects from one's c.d. come to validate or invalidate the candidate. </p><p>In the example from the book those objects that come to validate the candidate are: one's idea about the utility of walking, the value of one's health and in the end the feeling generated in me by the representation of taking a walk in the next half of hour.</p><p>*One thing that I forgot to say about c.d. is that is more or less permanent.</p></div>